Cute
by Raisin Cookies
Summary: DL story about about adding to the family. OC is mine
1. Cute

'Messer', Danny grumbled groggily into his cell phone. He glanced over at his neon alarm clock that flashed a lurid shade of green. Despite his blurry vision without his glasses he could still make out that the time was 3.17 am.

Mac's voice crackled over the line. 'Danny, its Mac. I'm sorry to call you out but I really need you to head over to the lab'.

'Mac I can't', Danny stated. 'Rosie's asleep; it's too early to take her to my ma's. She really needs sleep; I think she's coming down with something'.

'Danny I know, I know. I'm sorry but I really need you. Hawks, Stella and Lindsay are all in the field and I need someone to work trace. Bring Rosie; she can sleep in the office. Please Danny, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important'.

'Okay, I'll be in when I can', Danny reluctantly agreed.

Flipping on his bedside light Danny rubbed his eyes to try and wake himself up. Groaning, he threw back the covers and headed to the bathroom for a shower. 15 minutes later he was showered and dressed and headed into Rosie's room.

He quietly filled a bag with a change of clothes and some things for her to do during the day. Next he grabbed some food from the kitchen before heading back to fetch his daughter from her room.

'Daddy no'! She half sobbed as Danny lifted her into his arms. 'It's too early'.

'Sshh baby its okay, just try and go back to sleep'.

Rosie let out another moan as she buried her face into her daddy's chest and did what he said. Fell back asleep. Danny left the apartment and headed downstairs to the parking lot. Bundling her into the passengers' side and buckling her seatbelt he gently shut the door before heading around to the drivers side of his silver SUV.

20 minutes later they arrived at the lab and Danny lay Rosie down on the couch in the staff break room and covered her with her soft fleecy peach blanket that he had taken from home. He then headed across the corridor to the trace lab he would be working in that day. Like most of the rooms in the department the walls were mostly made of glass and from here he could see straight into the break room and keep a careful eye on his sleeping daughter.

Time had passed and it was soon 9.30 am and Danny was due a break. Rosie was still asleep on the sofa and he went to wake her.

'Rosie', he whispered to her as he gently rubbed her shoulder.

No response.

'Rosie, sweetheart, its time to get up', he said a little louder.

This time she stirred and her eyelids fluttered open.

'Morning', he beamed. 'You wanna get up and have some breakfast'.

Rosie nodded and tried to push herself up with one arm and rub the sleep out of her eyes with the other.

'Why are we here'? Rosie asked as Danny sat her up on a high stool at one of the tables.

'I got called in at the last minute. But as soon as I'm finished here we can do whatever you like, okay'?

Rosie nodded and yawned as Danny set a plate of fruit salad down in front of her and then one for himself. Despite his sometimes erratic working hours he always tried to eat most, or at least some, of their meals together. He poured two glasses of orange juice and sat down at the table to eat.

10 minutes later Rosie had finally finished eating; Danny had finished his 7 minutes previous.

'You done'? Danny asked. 'You want anything else'?

'No thanks'.

'Thank God for that', Danny joked as he rolled his eyes. 'I have NEVER met ANYONE who takes SOOO long to eat before. You sure don't get that from your Daddy'. His last few words were said through his own laughter as he grabbed Rosie, picking her up and tickled her sides.

'Daddy, STOP', she squealed through her giggles as she squirmed against him. He pulled up the bottom of the pyjama t-shirt and blew a raspberry on her tummy making her giggle more hysterically. Finally he stopped and planted a huge kiss on her cheek. He rose to his feet holding Rosie up on his hip.

'Okay beautiful. Let's get you dressed'. He dumped their dirty dishes in the dishwasher and grabbed his bag and headed to the locker room.

Rosie sat perched on the vanity unit next the sink and brushed her teeth while Danny pulled the clothes out of the bag and unfolded them. When her teeth were clean Danny wetted and soaped a facecloth and washed her face and neck. Danny asked what she wanted to do that day and she told him she wanted to go to the park and play on the swings.

'Arms in the air baby', he said. She raised her arms over her head and Danny pulled of her t-shirt and put on a clean, soft, cream coloured t-shit in its place. Rosie stood on top of the vanity as he help her change out of her pyjama bottoms and into cream woollen tights, a little denim skirt and a pair of cosy chocolate brown Uggs. He zipped her into a soft chocolate brown hoodie to match and lifted her down to the floor. He pulled the loose, soft brunet curls off of her face and into a ponytail and playfully tugged it.

'There, my baby is looking beautiful', he said with a big grin. Rosie grinned back before rocking a little on her feet as a huge sneeze shuddered through her body.

Danny looked at her in concern and felt her forehead and cheeks, she felt a little warm. He hated it when she was sick. She always looked so miserable, and he always felt so helpless. Another thing was that when she felt poorly she was always really clingy and rarely would let him out of her sight. It was this that broke his heart when he would have to leave her to go to work.

'It's okay sweetie, I've got a bottle of Tixilix that'll clear that right up'.

Gathering up her things he led her by the hand back to the break room.

'Hay hay hay, who's the cute brunet'?


	2. Sent Home

Danny turned his head and looked over his shoulder to find Flack striding towards them with a huge grin on his face.

'A little bird told me that I might find you here. Hope your keepin' out of trouble shorty!' Flack said as he knelt down next to Rosie and looked into her huge baby blue eyes.

'Hay Flack how's it going? You got called in too huh?' Danny asked.

'Na, I was already here. Just wrapped my case and as soon as I'm finish all the paperwork I am officially outta here,' he said looking up at Danny.

Danny looked confused, 'I thought you were working the McNiven case'.

'Na, Angell is heading that one up herself, that the reason you got called in eh?'

'Yeah, yeah, yeah and its really not what I need right now,' he said nodding his head in Rosie's direction. Flack gave him a sympathetic smile.

'Yeah Stel mentioned. So the cold huh?' He asked turning his attention back to Rosie.

Rosie nodded and then sneezed again. Danny let out a laugh, 'its ok baby he wasn't asking for proof'.

Flack rose to his feet again and the three of them continued making their way back to the break room while the two men discussed their respective caseswith each other. Danny set Rosie's bag down on a table and pulled up a colouring book and some pencils and Rosie climbed back up onto the couch. She tried to untangle the blanket that had been abandoned from earlier and as she did so a fuzzy brown bear tumbled out and landed on the floor. Rosie peered over the edge of the sofa to see where he had landed.

'Don, please can you pass me Charlie?' She asked while pointing to the floor by Flack's feet.

'There ya go kid,' he said stooping to pick up Charlie and passing him back into her outstretched arms before continuing his conversation with Danny. Once Rosie had been given some medicine and Danny had settled her with her colouring book the two detectives made their way out of the room.

'Look Danny, if your still here by the time I'm leaving, and she's not feeling any better, I can take her back to your place until you finish'.

'Thanks man I might hold you to that,' Danny said as he gently slapped Flack's back and made his way back into the lab and Flack headed downstairs to his office.

Rosie had been lying on the floor of the break room colouring in for about an hour and had just finished colouring a picture of an elephant using a silvery grey pencil. She had been so engrossed by trying to stay within the lines that she hadn't really notice that she kept have to sniff as her nose began to run. She carried on for a few more minutes until she decided she should go and find a tissue. Grabbing Charlie and getting to her feet she made her way across to the lab where her dad was. She was just about the knock on the glass to get his attention when Flack came up beside her.

'Hay princess, ya want yer daddy?' Rosie nodded.

'Yeah, my nose is running and I need a tissue,' she replied miserably. She then launched into succession of painfully sounding chesty coughs. Don put his hand on her back to steady her until she had stopped. Danny, who had been engrossed in his work, heard the commotion and looked up from his work. Stopping whatever he had been doing he made his way towards the door.

Don had fished in his pocket for a clean tissue and was getting Rosie to blow her nose when Danny stepped out into the hallway. He knelt down beside her and felt her forehead for the second time that morning.

'You alright sweetheart? That sounded sore,' he could feel that her temperature had increased from earlier, sighing he pushed his glasses further up his nose.

'Look Danny, don't worry about it, okay? I was just on my way up to let you know I was finished. You should take advantage of my good nature while you can'.

Danny let out a sarcastic laugh and made a funny face at Rosie. Her eyes were heavy and bleary; her nose pink from blowing it and her hair was messy and coming loose from the ponytail.

'What do ya say baby? Ya want Don to take you back home?'

Rosie looked from Danny to Don and then back again before shaking her head. Don knelt down beside Danny and took Rosie's hand.

'Ah come on? It'll be fun; we can do whatever you want. We'll make some popcorn, watch a movie, its gotta be better than sitting round here all day', he said as he wrinkled his nose at the thought.

Rosie shook her head again and her eyes watered a little.

'Why not sweetie? I'll be back in a couple of hours anyway, and I'll bet Don would watch High School Musical with you,' he said smiling mischievously at Flack.

Rosie looked disappointed and fidgeted with Charlie's ear. 'But Daddy, you said that once you finished we could go to the park and play on the swings'.

Danny gave her a soft smile before pointing out that it was December and freezing cold and that playing outside when she was sick would probably only make her cold worse.

After some more gentle persuasion, and the promise of a trip to the park as soon as she was well enough, she finally agreed to go home.


	3. The Talk

Danny sighed loudly as he reached for yet another book. How they hell was anyone supposed to understand sex he wondered to himself. The pictures in all of the books he'd looked at so far were rubbish, they were all too complicated and the descriptions sucked. He looked at his watch, 30 minutes he'd been searching with little success.

It had been a week since Flack had offered to look after Rosie when she had been unwell and Danny had spent the remainder of his shift worrying about his daughter. This was not because he didn't trust Flack to look after her, on the contrary he trusted him more than he did most people. It was just that Rosie always tended to be a bit emotional when she was sick. He remembered smirking to himself as he imagined the tough detective being forced to deal with a hysterical little girl.

When he had finally returned home from work he had been pleasantly surprised at the calm picture he saw before his eyes. Flack was sitting on the couch watching the highlights from the previous nights Giants game, and Rosie was cuddled sleepily into his side. Before leaving Flack filled Danny in that afternoons events, and that was precisely why he was now standing in the anatomy section of a quiet bookstore before he had to collect Rosie.

Eventually the pretty blond sales assistant approached him smiling.

'Sir, is there anything I can help you with?'

'I'm looking for a sex book'. Danny answered bluntly.

'Oh, well sir we have an excellent selection in the Literotica section. It just at the back of the store…'

'No, not that sort of sex book,' he interrupted her. 'It's for my daughter'.

Yeah, that's right, sweet little Rosie had asked Flack about sex. Danny grimaced at the memory. He knew he could have could have blagged it and used the old stork excuse but he decided against this on two points: -

Number one, Rosie was smart and would probably continue to quiz him on this explanation until he eventually slipped up and came clean with the truth anyway. In his experience it was best to not tell a lie as this only led to more lies being made up to cover the previous lie.

Reason number two was that he didn't really want to lie to her anyway. He knew that despite his current relationship with Lindsey, there was always a possibility that he could have to raise Rosie single handed through her teenage years. If this was the case then he wanted his daughter to be comfortable talking to him. If she wasn't then at least he had taken the opportunity to explain things before she found them too embarrassing to talk about.

'Erm, your daughter sir?' She asked, her smile fading slightly.

'Yeah, to…ya know…explain…about sex?'

'Oh,' her smile brightened again. 'Well this is one of the more popular ones,' she said pulling a book Danny had not yet looked at down from the shelf and handing it to him. Danny opened the book with renewed interest and leafed through the pages. Looking up he smiled uncomfortably at the assistant.

'Thanks, I'll take this one'.

Lindsey made her way up the stairs to Danny's apartment. She had had a long day at work and was looking forward to spending the evening with Danny and Rosie. Pulling out the key Danny had given to her, she quietly opened the door to his apartment and took off her boots. The TV was on mute and Rosie was sitting on Danny's knee and looked to be having a story read to her.

'Hi guys, whatcha doing?' Lindsay asked as she planted a soft kiss on Danny's lips and the two lovers whispered hello to one another.

'Hiya Lindsay, Daddy bought me a new book,' Rosie answered with smile.

'Really? Did I miss much?' She enquired as she sat down next to them on the sofa.

'Yeah,' Danny answered. Lindsay pretended to look disappointed.

'Aw, what was it about?'

'Making babies.' Rosie answered innocently as she flicked through the pages.

Lindsay raised an eyebrow at Danny and the pair grinned at each other.

'Well, I'm sure sorry I missed that.' Lindsay said desperately wishing she had been a fly on the wall for that particular discussion.

'Right miss,' Danny said as he stood up with Rosie in his arms then settled her back on the sofa with Lindsay. 'I'll go make you some warm milk, and then bed.'

'Oh, but I'm not tried yet,' Lindsay said with a smirk. Danny smiled and shook his head before making his way to the kitchen.

Rosie cuddled up to Lindsay and began showing her the illustrated pictures in her new book and pointing out facts that Danny had explained to her.

'Lindsay, do you and Daddy love each other?'

Lindsay was dumbstruck. How would she answer this she wondered? She and Danny hadn't actual said those three special words yet, but she felt that Danny deserved to hear them before his daughter did.

'Why do you ask that,' she said. Phew, dodged that bullet.

'Well,' she began, 'Daddy said that when grown ups are in love with each other they have sex and practice making babies'. She was now looking up at Lindsay and clearly still expecting an answer to her previous question.

Lindsay hesitated. Rosie grew impatient.

'Do you and Daddy have sex?' She ventured.

Danny had now returned from the kitchen. He had missed her first question but heard the second loud and clear. With raised eyebrows he cleared his throat and placed the mug of hot milk in the coffee table. Sitting down again he pulled Rosie back into his lap.

'Erm, sweetie…it's not really polite to asked people if they have sex.'

'Why not?'

'Well, it's usually a really private thing that happens between two people.'

'Oh.' Rosie paused and began sipping her milk that had been handed to her. Danny looked over the top of her head and grinned wildly at Lindsay how was sitting quietly.

'Sorry,' he mouthed to her before turning his vision back to his daughter who was deep in thought as she drank.

'Daddy,' she said looking up at him.

'Uhuh?'

'When I'm a grown up will I have sex too?' She asked innocently.

Danny paused, his eyes wide with realisation.

'No.'


	4. The Arrest

Rosie pushed herself up onto her knees and leaned across the cold steel table to retrieve the colouring pen that had rolled away from her. Finishing her latest picture she peered at her Dads watch that he had left next to her. Although she couldn't yet tell time she knew the numbers and before Daddy had left he had said that as soon as the big hand was pointing to the number four he would come and get her and they could leave and go home. When she was in this room she wasn't allowed to leave unless someone came to get her. She grinned in excitement as she noticed that said hand was now hovering directly over the four. Turning her head she looked out of the window into the corridor of the police station to see if he was coming; but the corridor was empty.

Rosie liked being in this room. From in here you could see out into the corridor and watch all the people go by, and on the other side of the room was another huge window that nobody could see out of because the glass was all blurry. It reminded Rosie of an extreme version of her Dad's glasses. Sometimes when he wasn't looking she would put them on and everything would go all wobbly, although if she kept them on for too long they just made her feel sick.

Daddy had once told her that this was one of the rooms that the police used to talk to the robbers in once they caught them. That's what her Daddy did. He caught robbers and locked them away. In fact that's where he was right now, in the room next door asking someone lots and lots of questions until he got the truth.

Rosie felt a bit sorry for whomever it was that he was with. She had, on occasion, been at the end of her Dads questioning and it wasn't a fun experience. The worst one was the time that she decided the living room in their apartment needed decorated so she decided to add brightly coloured painted handprints over the wall. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't also got the paint all over her, her clothes, her hair and then accidentally stepped in the paint tray and trampled paint all over the carpet and then sat down on the sofa to admire her handy work. Yep, he'd been mad at that one. Shortly afterwards the room had been painted dark green, the carpet stripped back to the floorboards and the sofa was now wipe clean leather. Maybe she should have just told the truth as soon as he'd asked her if she had done it. But he looked mad, so she crossed her fingers behind her back, avoided eye contact and innocently proclaimed she didn't know. She remembered him leading her over to one of the handprints and calmly drawing her attention to the hundreds of tiny lines that had dried into the paint. Then he gently took her hand and showed her the same tiny lines that ran in swirly patterns all over the tips of her fingers. Rosie had learnt two things that day. Firstly she learnt all about finger printing and secondly…she couldn't outsmart her Dad.

Growing impatient with the fact that her Dad still hadn't come to get her and the fact that she was over-eager to show him her picture, she slide down off her chair. Straightening her dress she made her way over to the door and stretched up until she could reach the handle and opened the door. Clutching her picture in one hand she peered round the doorframe in the direction she had seen Don and her Dad head in the last time she saw them.

The hallway was empty.

She let out a sigh and was about to close the door again when she heard another door swing open and Don's voice arguing with another voice that she didn't recognise.

'You're going away for a long time,' she heard Don say followed by the soft clinking of metal. Rosie peeked back out into the corridor. Her Dad was standing with his back to her. She was about to call out to him but gasped in horror at what she saw next. Being led out of the room further down the hall with his hands cuffed firmly behind his back was none other than…

'Santa Claus?' Rosie whispered under her breath.


	5. The Confession

The phone on Danny's desk rang shrilly in the silence of the office. Lindsay leant over the desk grabbing the receiver.

'Detective Messer's phone,' she answered politely.

'Hi this is Linda Hill, Rosie's kindergarten teacher, is it possible to speak to Mr Messer please?'

Lindsay rose to her feet in a moment of slight panic, 'Erm he's not in the office at the moment. I'm Lindsay Munro, Danny's partner, is anything wrong? Is Rosie okay?' She asked hastily.

'Oh, I'm sorry to panic you Ms Munro, its nothing to worry about, Rosie's fine. I was just wondering if Mr Messer would be able to drop in this afternoon when he's collecting Rosie. It's just a chat, nothing to worry about. Would you be able to get a message to him?'

Lindsay breathed a sigh of relief. 'Yeah sure no problem Ms Hill I'll call him on his cell and let him know.'

Once Lindsay had hung up she quickly dialled Danny's cell and relayed the message to him. Hanging up the phone for a second time she made her way back to her desk and sat down. Trying again to work her way through the paperwork that swamped her workspace she let her mind wonder to little Rosie. Over the past few days she had been extremely quiet which both Danny and her had agreed was unusual for Rosie, especially in the run up to Christmas. She also hadn't been quite as affectionate with Danny as she was usually was and had began coming to Lindsay for hugs instead of her dad and also requesting that Lindsay, not Danny, read to her a bedtime story. Hoping the little girl hadn't gotten herself into any trouble at school Lindsay eventually turned her attention back to her papers.

Danny wondered up the corridor in search of Rosie's classroom. All the other times Danny had been here the building had been filled with the talking, laughing and occasional crying of kids. This time it was different. All the other kids had left leaving the corridors deserted and classrooms in a riot of tired teachers, scattered papers and spilt glitter. Danny had never been asked to 'come in for a chat' before.

Danny stopped in the doorway of the classroom. Rosie was sitting at a kiddie-sized desk holding a pencil in one hand, biting the thumbnail on her other hand and staring into space. Danny knocked the door softly and entered the room as Rosie and Miss Hill turned in his direction to see who was. Rosie quickly cast her eyes down and she shifted uncomfortable in her seat. Miss Hill smiled and made her way over to Danny and the pair began talking quietly to one another; occasionally stopped to steal glances in her direction.

Eventually hearing footsteps coming in her direction she looked up to see her dad making his way towards her. He smiled softly and ruffled her hair.

'You wanna get yer things packed away and we'll head home.'

Rosie nodded and began stuffing her things into her navy backpack that Danny held open for her.

'Come kid,' he said holding his hand out to her and she took it, grasping it tightly in her much smaller one. They said goodbye to Miss Hill and made their way to the car.

'Daddy?' Rosie asked quietly.

'Uhuh?'

'Am I in trouble?'

Danny sighed, 'no, but we'll talk about it at home, okay?'

Rosie nodded.

Rosie struggled out of her winter coat and handed it to her dad who was waiting patiently to hang it up for her.

'Okay, lets go have that chat, eh? He said as he placed his hand on her back and guided her through to the kitchen to sit at the table. One they were seated Danny surveyed his daughter, since she had sat down she had suddenly found the hem of her skirt very interesting was nervously swinging her lets back and forth. Danny recognised the body language; something was definitely the matter he thought.

Danny cleared his throat, 'so, Miss Hill told me what happened in class today'. Rosie remained silent so Danny continued. 'She said you didn't wanna stand up front and tell the rest of the class what you want Santa to bring you. I don't mind that, I mean when I was your age I used to get really shy about stuff like that too. But Miss Hill then told me you then got really upset after that'.

Rosie's eyes water, but still she made no comment. 'Rosie, please will you tell me what the matter is?' Rosie shrugged weakly. She couldn't hold back the tears any longer. A sob escaped her lips and she lunged towards the table, buried her head in her arms and started to cry.

Danny was up out of his seat and crouched down at her side in a second. He pulled her towards him and she settled against his chest, sobbing into his t-shirt as he gently rubbed soothing circles on her back. He comforted her by whispering loving words into her ear and wiped away strands of her tear soaked hair from her face.

'I don't want Santa to come'. She whimpered out through her tears as Danny continued to comfort her.

'Why not sweetheart?' Danny asked looking down at her in surprise.

'He's a bad man,' she stated.

'Hey, where is this coming from?' When she didn't answer it suddenly dawned on him why she would suddenly think this. 'Baby, when you came to work with me the other day did you come out of the room you were drawing in?'

Rosie didn't answer; instead she just hugged her dad tighter.

'I promise I won't be mad,' he reassured her.

He felt Rosie nod her head and sniffle loudly. 'Baby, that man, the one you saw Don and I with, he wasn't the real Santa'.

Rosie pushed herself up and looked up, 'he wasn't?'

'Nup, he was just posing as Santa.'

'Is that why you put him in jail?' She asked innocently. Danny smiled and wiped some stray tears away using the pads of his thumbs.

'No, he did something else as well'.

'Oh.' She settled back against him and sighed loudly. 'Daddy, I didn't mean to come out the room'.

'I know'.

'Do you think the real Santa will still come?' she asked nervously.

'Yeah, I think so. Hey you know what? If I remember correctly I still owe you a trip to the park'.

Rosie grinned wildly and climbed down from Danny's lap and tugged at his hand to encourage him to get up.

'Will you push me on the swings Daddy?'

'Okaaay, but one of these days its my turn!'


End file.
